Can we do better? : Beach Couture : A Haute Mess

Colourful cocktail dresses in rainbow colours, sweeping gowns of blackest black - is this a new collection of avant-garde haute couture? Well yes and no, because these extraordinary "gowns" are artworks entirely composed from plastic rubbish gathered from the sea and her beaches. 

Australian based artist Marina DeBris has created this collection of wearable art, to highlight the urgency required to change our absurd disposal of plastic. The exhibition, which is currently on display at the Maritime Museum of Australia in Hobart, is confronting and clever. 

Each "gown" is entirely composed of a theme of particular rubbish types. So there is a dress made entirely from discarded toys found washed up on the beach, another made from coloured plastic containers, one made from bits of flags, and one made from black garbage bags. The fact that there is SO much rubbish that it's easy to find enough to create these themes was the part that really sent chills down my spine when I saw the exhibition recently. 

It's a picturesque reminder that we need to do better as a society, and not hope that somebody else will deal with the problem of our throw-away culture. 

But one step at a time, we can each make a difference by choosing to think about what items we actually need to have, and then choosing the most sustainably made product. Items that are made from biodegradable materials, or truly recyclable ones like metal or glass, are getting easier and easier to find as alternatives to plastics which can't (or aren't) be recycled. 

Beach Couture : A Haute Mess runs until September 20, 2018.